Brand new to programming? By the time you finish this lesson, you will have entered your first computer program, run it, and looked at the results. This chapter springboards you into programming so you can get a feel for programming right away.

This chapter is from the book

You have this book because you want to go farther than the typical computer user. You don’t just want to use computers; you want to write programs for them. You want the skills necessary to make computers do exactly what you want.

This 24-hour tutorial shows that you don’t have to be a wizard to become a proficient (or even an expert) programmer. By the time you finish this one-hour lesson, you will have entered your first computer program, run it, and looked at the results. This chapter springboards you into programming so you can get a feel for programming right away. Once you’ve had this hands-on experience, subsequent hours will explain more of the background you need to understand how to design and write programs.

The highlights of this hour include:

Learning what a program does

Understanding the truth behind common programming myths

Mastering source code concepts

Entering and running your first program

Get Ready to Program

You’ll find this hour divided into these two areas:

An introduction to the nature of programming

A hands-on practice with your first programming language

Most new programmers want to start programming right away. Yet, some background is necessary as well. This hour attempts to take care of both demands by offering an introductory background look at programming and then quickly jumping head-first into hands-on programming. If you went straight into a new programming language with absolutely no background first, you might miss the entire point of programming in the first place. So, the next few pages bring all readers up to a level playing field so that everyone who takes this 24-hour course can begin to write programs right away.